Astra Space Makes It to Orbit
The fourth time was a charm for Astra Space.
The company succeeded in reaching Earth orbit for the first time with its Rocket 3 booster on Friday evening. The small-satellite booster put a mass simulator into orbit after liftoff from the Pacific Spaceport Complex — Alaska on Kodiak Island.
The demonstration launch was sponsored by the U.S. Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center as part of the Space Test Program’s Rapid Agile Launch Initiative (RALI). The initiative aims to demonstrate commercially available solutions for placing U.S. Space Force payloads into orbit on a flexible schedule.
The two-stage Rocket 3 is 11.6 meters (38 ft) tall with the capability of placing 25-150 kg (55-331 lb) into a 500 km (310 mile) sun–synchronous orbit.
Rocket 3 had failed in three previous attempts from the Alaskan spaceport. The first failed shortly after liftoff, the second reached space but lacked sufficient velocity to enter orbit, and the third took off sideways after one of its first stage engines failed a second after liftoff. The booster continued to fly but was destroyed by the range safety officer after it flew outside of its assigned airspace.
6 responses to “Astra Space Makes It to Orbit”
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They made it! I see they are asking for approval of another sat internet fleet.
Congratulations and Welcome to the club!
well done
Another small space company beats Jeff Bezos to orbit. Proud of Astra coming back from the last launch and making it all the way.
It’s what happens when the boss has a degree in engineering rather than economics. They focus on getting the perfect design instead of designs that are good enough to start generating revenue…
Astra’s Chris Kemp was studying engineering, but dropped out without a degree, following a path well-trodden by many prior successful tech entrepreneurs. Bezos has an engineering degree. Musk has degrees in physics and economics but is also an auto-didact master of several engineering disciplines. Pecksniffian perfectionism is not an intrinsic quality of the engineering mindset, it’s a choice.